Today we got a late start….7:45 a.m. instead of 6:00! What a treat! Our itinerary for the day included a drive to St. Lucia with a stop at a coffee shop on our way to the river boat ride to see some hippos! It was a gorgeous day for a leisurely boat ride down the river. We saw several pods of hippos with their babies, but they were all mostly submerged in the water, so that meant mostly head shots! As we drove into St. Lucia we saw a sign that read, “Caution! Hippos roam the streets at night.” We thought this was funny until our boat captain said that among the few hundred hippos in the area, many do leave the water and walk on the main street at night! And hippos ARE Africa’s #1 most dangerous animal! More people are killed each year by hippos than any other animal. This was definitely news to me!!
After the boat ride we headed back to the center of St. Lucia for an AMAZING lunch at a Mediterranean restaurant. I had a beef kabob, and Jeff had a seafood platter with huge prawns! After lunch we did a bit of shopping on the main street, including a local craft market. Our next stop was the beach, and everyone in the group was excited about getting to swim in the Indian Ocean. And since the temperature was about 85° Celsius, the beach sounded great! What we didn’t take into account, sadly, was the stiff 35-40 MPH winds that were blowing steadily at the beach. This meant walking across the sand to the water’s edge was a relatively uncomfortable task, with sand hitting your legs in a somewhat brutal and stinging fashion. Nonetheless, we all made it to the water, and several members of out group did swim, including Jeff. There was a pretty strong rip current, so those that actually went out far enough to swim were pretty brave if you ask me!
After our short trip to the beach we truged back across the sand to our van. At this point we were all feeling a little hot, tired, and now very sandy!! We had a 35-minute drive to the next stop, and several of us managed to catch nap on the way. Our final destination for the day was the Zululand Cat Conservation Park, that rescues and rehabilitates African wild cats, Servals, Caracals and Cheetahs. The Caracals displayed some unbelievable jumping abilities, and the cheetahs were beautiful.
This was one of our busiest days in South Africa yet and we all were feeling it by the time we got back to camp! A good night’s sleep is in order, as we are leaving at 5:30 a.m. tomorrow to go on a lion safari and then do a drive in a new park in the afternoon! We just had the most spectacular lighting/thunderstorm here, which just makes this whole experience more authentic! A great day!
Carpe Diem...seizing life's adventures 